


Dance With Me

by somehowunbroken



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-09
Updated: 2010-09-09
Packaged: 2017-10-11 15:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/113853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lok at the different kinds of dancing that happens on Atlantis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Earth Dancing

  
John didn’t know why the song was on this CD. He didn’t particularly like or dislike it; he wasn’t really an Orleans kind of guy, but it wasn’t terrible, he supposed. But still, why would he have put it on a CD?

“What is this song?” Teyla stood, her head tilted slightly to one side, eyes slightly narrowed as she listened.

“It’s called ‘Dance With Me’,” he responded. “The band is called Orleans. They’re named after a city back on Earth.”

“I have not heard it before,” she said after a moment, drifting towards the CD player in the corner of John’s quarters. “I thought that we had listened to all of your music.” She looked up at him from across the room. “Did you get more of these CDs from Earth?”

John shook his head. “No, and I really couldn’t tell you where the song came from.” He shrugged. “They’re not really a favorite band of mine. It’s okay, I guess.”

“I like it,” Teyla offered, smiling. “What sort of dance would accompany this song?”

John blinked. “Dance?” he repeated, squinting his eyes a little. “Um, well, I don’t know. I’m not really a dancing kind of guy.”

Teyla smiled and stepped towards him. “But the song is called ‘Dance With Me,’ is it not?”

“Yes,” he agreed cautiously. “It doesn’t really have its own dance, though. It’s just, it’s like…” John trailed off, noticing that Teyla was walking towards him, still smiling.

“Then dance with me,” she said simply, offering her hand to him. John gaped at her, his brain telling him to _back away_ but his feet, his stupid traitorous feet, left him standing next to her.

“Teyla, I don’t dance,” he said again, a little nervously this time. He tried to give her a smile, but felt the strain in it as he did. She merely stood there, hand held out, and John realized that this was something that he would not be able to get out of. Sighing, he ignored her hands and put his hands around her waist, drawing her to him. Teyla blinked up at him, surprised, and he grinned down at her, a real smile this time.

“This is Earth dancing,” he said. “Well, it’s one kind of Earth dancing. There are other kinds, fancier kinds, but this is the only kind I can manage.”

Teyla stood still, slightly awkwardly, with her hands hesitantly on his hips. John smiled down at her again, eyes crinkling at the edges, and pulled her hands up to loop around his shoulders. They swayed from side to side, turning in a slow circle by the window.

The song had ended, blended seamlessly into another song that John knew he’d never heard before. It also had something to do with dancing, and was more upbeat than the last, but they continued their slow movement. Teyla’s original uneasiness had faded away; she now had her hands joined behind his neck, and was swaying with him, looking lost in thought.

“What’re you thinking?” John asked, gazing down at her. She blinked up at him, the faraway look in her eyes suddenly clearing, and quietly smiled.

“Why do you not dance?” she asked in response. John blinked. That wasn’t what he’d been expecting to hear.

“I, erm, well, I’m not very good at it,” he said by way of explanation. “It takes a lot of time to learn how to be a good dancer. I never had that kind of extra time.” _And dancing’s probably the last thing I would’ve done if I did,_ he added silently.

“I think that you dance very well,” Teyla replied softly, laying her head on his chest. John responded by pulling her even more tightly to him, his arms encircling her waist. They swayed together, still standing in the fading light from the window, until the room had descended almost entirely into darkness.

The music had long since ended, but neither noticed until the door to John’s quarters suddenly slid open and Rodney came rushing in. Teyla made to move back from John, but he kept his arms around her waist, so she ended up twisting slightly in his embrace to see who had entered.

“Colonel Sheppard, have you seen my mix CD? I made it for a date with this cute new scientist from Earth. I heard that she likes to dance, so I figured it could be really romantic if I made a dance CD, and the acoustics in my lab and my quarters are just terrible, so I came in here to borrow your CD player to test it out, only I think I left the CD…” Rodney finally trailed off, noticing the couple by the window for the first time. “Oh, Teyla. Um, hello, I didn’t see you there.” He rocked back on his heels, taking in rather quickly the glare that John was sending his way and the faint tinge in Teyla’s cheeks.

“I’ll just, um, I’ll come back later,” Rodney babbled, backpedaling towards the door. “Better yet, no worries, keep it. I’ll burn another one.”

Teyla laughed quietly as the doors slid shut again. She turned back around and looked up at John, who was looking down at her, an amused smile on his face.

“It seems that Dr. McKay has given us a gift,” Teyla said indicating the CD in the stereo system. “Shall we take advantage of it again?”

John’s smile spread and he walked to the stereo, hitting the play button. Orleans filled the air again as Teyla walked towards him. They resumed their swaying, holding tightly to each other, as the music played, and John made a mental note to thank Rodney for his unexpected – and, apparently, unintended – gift. John might not be a fan of dancing in general, but he was definitely a fan of dancing with Teyla.


	2. Athosian Dancing

John could hear the music coming from Teyla’s room before he even turned the corner. It sounded like pipes; a more classically trained ear, Rodney’s perhaps, would call it airy, light, ethereal. John just called it Teyla’s music.

The Athosians didn’t have any sort of sound recording devices, but as John rounded the corner, he confirmed that the music was coming from the small CD player he’d given her last month. A few CDs were stacked next to it; John recognized all of them as ones he’d given her. He smirked a little at the Orleans CD that sat near the top of the stack.

The CD case on top was open, empty, and John could see before he entered the room that it didn’t have a cover. John walked towards the CD player and the stack of cases, momentarily forgetting where he was and why he was there in the first place.

“John.” Teyla’s voice, calm as ever, came from behind him as he touched the case. He jumped back, his hand flying to rest behind his back.

“I wasn’t – I was just…” John’s voice trailed off. Teyla raised her eyebrows, amused.

“That CD case is for the music currently playing,” she said, turning away from John. He noticed for the first time that she wasn’t wearing her usual outfit. Instead, she wore sort of a loose dress – a pale green thing that clung to her top before flowing from her waist to her knees. He also noticed with interest that the dress dipped low in the back – so low that he imagined that he could see-

And then Teyla was turning back around, and John was rocking back on his heels, a smile on his face. She raised an eyebrow again. She knew that he had been looking.

“Dr. Haller helped me record this music,” she said, indicating the CD player. “She believes that music is very important to culture. I happen to agree.” She moved away from him again, crossing the room with intricate steps. John realized that the steps were perfectly timed to the music. He watched her feet as they crossed, paused, moved forward, floated back. John heard her laugh slightly and for a moment thought that it was part of the music.

“This is Athosian dancing,” Teyla said. “The song is played while the crops are growing.” She smiled at him. “It was a belief among my people, long ago, that dancing for the crops made the harvest more plentiful.”

John narrowed his eyes at her. “You dance for plants?” he clarified.

“It is one dance among many,” she affirmed, still smiling, still dancing. “This was always my favorite dance.”

“And why’s that?” he asked, stepping back as she made a sweeping motion that brought her to a stop right in front of him.

Teyla only smiled wider. She grabbed his hands in her own and moved backwards. John stumbled forward, a look of surprise crossing his face.

“There are two ways to perform the dance,” she explained. As she spoke, her hands and feet were moving, and he found himself trying to follow her lead, not quite knowing what he was doing. He felt like a fool, crossing his feet over each other awkwardly, moving forward towards her and backwards away from her, trying to mirror her own movements. “The first dance you saw when you arrived. It is done in a group, and each dancer performs the same movements.”

John’s feet felt a little surer beneath him now, though he still wouldn’t say that he had a clue what he was doing. He anticipated the pattern that his feet should be following and stepped through it almost mechanically, still listening as Teyla spoke.

“But I prefer the other form,” Teyla said, suddenly spinning around and smacking straight into John’s chest. His arms automatically rose to steady her, and he kept his arms around her waist, preventing her from moving away. He smirked down at her.

“And what would that be?” he asked, feeling a slight edge of victory without really knowing why. Teyla smiled, a little deviously, and John’s eyes widened as she suddenly leaned back in his embrace, arms above her head. One of her legs rose to curl around his lower back, and John leaned back, bracing their combined weights. His arms shifted as she moved, still dancing, though neither of them were moving their feet. Her movements were graceful and seemed unhurried though the music’s tempo was quite fast. Her leg slid from his back and John shifted again as she straightened in his arms. Teyla’s arms looped around his head, pulling them together tightly as her embrace dropped lower around his back. Then she was sliding her hands down his arms, catching his hands, and they were moving again, feet and hands and arms, twirling and stepping in time, and though John was absolutely certain that he was going to trip and kill them both at any second, they stayed upright.

The music came to an end with a long, low note held steadily, fading into silence. John blinked, wondering how he hadn’t killed the both of them, and noticed the final position of the dance. He was standing, feet shoulder width apart, arms wrapped around Teyla’s back. She stood, her body pressed to him, arms snaked around his back; one reached up and across, hand landing on his shoulder, while the other clung tightly around his waist.

They stood like that for a moment, neither really wanting to break the spell. John finally cleared his throat, and Teyla’s arms loosened as she looked up at him. She smiled.

“I find myself wondering again why you say that you do not dance,” she said, resting her hands on his arms. “Those are very intricate steps, and I am certain that yo have never seen them before, yet you executed each one perfectly. And,” she said, smile turning into a smirk, “you did not drop me.”

“It was close,” John muttered, looking down at her through narrowed eyes. “You could have warned me you were just gonna drop all your weight on me all at once there.”

Teyla nodded. “I suppose I could have,” she said, with mock thoughtfulness. “But you did so well on your own.”

“And this is a dance for the harvest?” he asked again, recalling exactly how close they had been and how… suggestive… some of the moves had seemed. “You sure you didn’t get it mixed up with some other sort of dance?”

Teyla laughed, and he knew that she caught what he was suggesting. “There are dances for that as well,” she said. “They are more… provocative.”

More provocative? John felt his eyes widen a little. The way she’d been wriggling around there… if he hadn’t been so concerned with dropping her… well, the dancing would’ve turned into something else entirely, he was sure of that.

“This dance is meant to show the strength of those wishing a bountiful harvest,” she explained. “The man displays how strong he is, supporting the woman as she gives thanks. In this way, my forefathers believed they could show that they deserved a plentiful return from their sowing.”

“Oh,” was all John could come up with as a reply. Another song had started after a moment’s silence, and the music was haunting, slow and quiet. Teyla’s feet were staring to wander again, and John walked to the CD player and hit the button, stopping the music and her movements.

“Anyway, maybe we can continue the dance lessons later. I was just stopping by to see if you were hungry,” he said, remembering the original reason for his visit. “I talked Marlena from the commissary into making turkey for dinner and I thought you might be interested. She said she’d make some stuffing and sweet potatoes to go with it,” he added, and Teyla’s eyes lit.

“Indeed,” she said. “I am hungry, and I do enjoy sweet potatoes.”

John laughed as they exited her quarters. “You more than _enjoy_ sweet potatoes,” he teased. “You _crave_ them. You _love_ them.”

“Perhaps,” Teyla conceded. “They remind me of arachon root. We used to grow it on Old Athos.” She looked directly at him and smiled again. “It is for that harvest that I first learned the dance.”

John grinned back at her. “Then I think I like arachon root too,” he said, sliding his arm back around her waist as they continued their walk. He felt the fabric of her dress where he usually felt the rough material of her trousers and stopped walking. “Hey, did you want to change out of the dress before we ate?”

Teyla smiled and kept walking. “I will keep it on,” she said, “Perhaps I will show you that other kind of dance after dinner.”

John’s feet nearly tripped him as he hurried to catch up to her. “_That_ other kind of dance?” he asked, slightly rushing his words. She smirked up at him and twirled out of his grasp, hurrying into the commissary.

“We shall see,” she said back over her shoulder, laughing as he quickened his pace and darted past her to load up their food trays.

“Suddenly, you seem hungrier,” she observed, looking down at the overloaded trays between them a moment later. Teyla grabbed a fork and began to eat the pile of sweet potatoes that were overflowing from a bowl on one of the trays. She looked up and noticed John eating with a singular focus, staring straight at her as he almost mechanically shoved food into his mouth.

“Suddenly, I find myself wanting some more dance lessons,” he said, voice low. She raised an eyebrow and began to eat more quickly herself.

They continued that way for a moment, nearly finishing all of the food on their combined trays, neither breaking the gaze that they shared, until Rodney clattered down next to them.

“So you never asked how my date went,” he began, already chewing on a buttered roll. “I made another copy of that CD I left at your place, Sheppard, and it was really a hit. Apparently my intel was right, and she loves to dance, and even though I never really prided myself on being much of a dancer, I think I did all right. I mean, I’m seeing her again later this week, so I guess I didn’t tread too heavily on her toes.” He finally paused and looked up. Ronon sat across from him, one eyebrow raised.

“Who’re you talking to?” Ronon asked, beginning his own meal. Rodney rolled his eyes.

“To…” he trailed of as he turned to where Teyla had been sitting only a moment before. “Oh. Wonder where they went?”

Ronon chuckled. “Oh, Sheppard and Teyla?” He smirked as he nodded his head towards the far door. “I wouldn’t wonder too hard about it.”

“Oh,” Rodney said, blinking. Then, “Oh. _Oh_.” He dug his fork blindly into his plate, feeling his face heat up as he ate. “Well, okay then.” His face brightened a bit as he looked up at Ronon. “Did I tell you about my date with Dr. Haller?”


End file.
